DeKALB – NIU baseball (8-14, 1-8 MAC) dropped its mid-week showdown with the University of Illinois Chicago (5-18, 1-2 MVC) by a score of 13-5.
“Ugly, not good,” said NIU baseball head coach Ryan Copeland. “We knew it’d be a struggle with the double mid-week game. We played a high scoring game yesterday and used a ton of arms.”
The Huskies fell behind early in Wednesday’s matchup with UIC, trailing 7-0 in the top of the first inning before having an at-bat.
Junior pitcher Sebastian Gutierrez got the start for the Huskies, recording only 1 out while allowing 6 earned runs. Gutierrez struggled with command issues in his short start, walking in 3 runs.
“The first batter of the game flew out, so you’re kind of hoping he can just settle in and get a couple innings out of Sebastian (Gutierrez) and then the wheels just fell off for him,” Copeland said. “He was nowhere near the zone with all three pitches he throws. It’s just impossible to succeed with that lack of command.”
NIU has utilized 13 different pitchers over its last two games against UIC and Eastern Illinois University.
Senior outfielder JP Gauthier was used as a pitcher in the ninth inning due to the Huskies’ lack of help in the bullpen. Gauthier totaled one inning of work, giving up 2 runs, one of which was earned, and was the only Huskie pitcher to not allow a free pass to first during the ballgame.
“We knew we were going to be short handed on what we had out there,” Copeland said. “We had some guys who threw the ball well and kind of kept us in the game for a while. At the end of the day, we didn’t have enough which is why we’re throwing JP (Gauthier) out there.”
As a team, NIU surrendered 13 free passes during the game. Senior pitcher Conner Lutes and freshman pitcher Jack Olson each gave up 3 walks in their outings Wednesday.
Sophomore pitcher Alex Day, junior pitcher John Lyman and freshman pitcher Alex Graber each turned in scoreless outings in the game.
Day turned in a scoreless two inning outing, the longest of any NIU pitcher on Wednesday. The Tinley Park native’s statline also included 2 strikeouts, 1 hit, 1 walk and 1 hit by pitch.
Senior outfielder Gavin Baldwin slugged his 8th home run of the season in his first at-bat of the game. Baldwin now sits tied for third in home runs and sixth place in runs batted in with 28.
Baldwin’s solo-shot sat as NIU’s lone run until the eighth inning when freshman infielder Jack Swaney brought home freshman outfielder Jalen House on an RBI double play.
Senior outfielder CJ Cepicky plated 3 runs in the ninth inning with a 3-run home run, his third long ball of the season.
“We’re at the top of the conference in runs scored for a reason,” Copeland said. “We have a dangerous offense. We have some slug in us, and when we go down 7-0, it’s not like our guys are checking out or quitting. They’re still staying hard but I don’t know that we’ve done a good enough job with coaching up our guys’ mentality and toughness to be able to feel like they can come back in a game like that.”
The Huskies begin a four-game series against Butler University at 2 p.m. Friday in Indianapolis, Indiana. Live stats for the game will be available on Stat Broadcast.
